State Intervention Against The Baptist Church of Windsor: From Law-
Abiding Citizens to Perpetrators of Severe Child Physical Abuse
Dianne Casoni,i Adriana Pacheco,ii Mike Kropveldiii
i, ii École de criminologie, Université de Montréal, iii Info-Cult/Info-Secte
Abstract
Based on a case study, this article presents the
evolution of The Baptist Church of Windsor
toward an authoritarian and cult-type
functioning wherein, isolated from their social
environment, members resorted to severe child
physical abuse. An exhaustive analysis of
documents, testimonies of former members, and
interviews with key participants point to the
leader as having played an important role in the
group’s evolution. The group’s trajectory from
its origin to its dissolution is presented and
described with an emphasis on the role played
by the leader and on the group’s struggles with
the law and with social-control agencies.
Finally, issues raised concerning the process of
victimization of the children and the choice of
intervention by social-control agencies are
discussed.
Introduction
In this article, we analyze the complex relation
between The Baptist Church of Windsor (BCW),
which is a religious group based in Canada, and
the law, which led to peaceful and sucessful
state intervention. We reconstruct and analyze
the trajectory of the BCW and show how it
evolved from an expanding, youthful, and
dynamic church-like group seeking social
integration to a cult-like group whose members
seemingly followed the leader blindly into social
isolation and a quest for purity and perfection.
This twofold quest led members into extreme
behaviors that involved the physical abuse of
their children. In a previous publication in
Criminologie (Pacheco &Casoni, 2008), we
presented the group’s trajectory and analyzed
the history of the BCW as relates to its changing
doctrine. The present paper focuses more
precisely on the group’s leadership and its
struggles with both the law and social-control
agencies—in this case, with Child Protection
Services and the Office for the Regulation of
Child-care Facilities (OSGE).1
To give the reader a better understanding of the
group’s evolving relationship to the law, we
present briefly the BCW’s trajectory by focusing
on its leader, Pastor X.2 Both our research and a
decision by a criminal court of law identified
him as the person most responsible for the
physical abuse of the group’s children. After this
short description of the group, we present a
theoretical framework that includes some major
contributions from the literature about the role
leaders in religious groups of a cultic nature
typically play.
This framework will be useful to better
understand the BCW’s trajectory and the
influence Pastor X had on his disciples. Then we
describe the methodology for this research,
followed by the presentation of the trajectory of
the BCW, with an emphasis on the role of its
leader. We then describe the interventions by all
of the social-control agencies involved, and the
BCW’s responses to these interventions. The
discussion that follows raises many issues,
especially about the process of victimization of
the children and the choice of intervention by
social-control agencies.
Charismatic Leadership
There is little doubt that leaders play an
important role in the formation and development
of groups in general, and of cultic and new
religion-type groups in particular (Weber, 1906).
However, it would be beyond the scope of this
article to review this literature as a whole.
Rather, in keeping with the aim of this piece, we
present a brief review of key theoretical
1 In French, Office des services de garde à l’enfance.
2 Pastor X is a pseudonym.
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 83
Abiding Citizens to Perpetrators of Severe Child Physical Abuse
Dianne Casoni,i Adriana Pacheco,ii Mike Kropveldiii
i, ii École de criminologie, Université de Montréal, iii Info-Cult/Info-Secte
Abstract
Based on a case study, this article presents the
evolution of The Baptist Church of Windsor
toward an authoritarian and cult-type
functioning wherein, isolated from their social
environment, members resorted to severe child
physical abuse. An exhaustive analysis of
documents, testimonies of former members, and
interviews with key participants point to the
leader as having played an important role in the
group’s evolution. The group’s trajectory from
its origin to its dissolution is presented and
described with an emphasis on the role played
by the leader and on the group’s struggles with
the law and with social-control agencies.
Finally, issues raised concerning the process of
victimization of the children and the choice of
intervention by social-control agencies are
discussed.
Introduction
In this article, we analyze the complex relation
between The Baptist Church of Windsor (BCW),
which is a religious group based in Canada, and
the law, which led to peaceful and sucessful
state intervention. We reconstruct and analyze
the trajectory of the BCW and show how it
evolved from an expanding, youthful, and
dynamic church-like group seeking social
integration to a cult-like group whose members
seemingly followed the leader blindly into social
isolation and a quest for purity and perfection.
This twofold quest led members into extreme
behaviors that involved the physical abuse of
their children. In a previous publication in
Criminologie (Pacheco &Casoni, 2008), we
presented the group’s trajectory and analyzed
the history of the BCW as relates to its changing
doctrine. The present paper focuses more
precisely on the group’s leadership and its
struggles with both the law and social-control
agencies—in this case, with Child Protection
Services and the Office for the Regulation of
Child-care Facilities (OSGE).1
To give the reader a better understanding of the
group’s evolving relationship to the law, we
present briefly the BCW’s trajectory by focusing
on its leader, Pastor X.2 Both our research and a
decision by a criminal court of law identified
him as the person most responsible for the
physical abuse of the group’s children. After this
short description of the group, we present a
theoretical framework that includes some major
contributions from the literature about the role
leaders in religious groups of a cultic nature
typically play.
This framework will be useful to better
understand the BCW’s trajectory and the
influence Pastor X had on his disciples. Then we
describe the methodology for this research,
followed by the presentation of the trajectory of
the BCW, with an emphasis on the role of its
leader. We then describe the interventions by all
of the social-control agencies involved, and the
BCW’s responses to these interventions. The
discussion that follows raises many issues,
especially about the process of victimization of
the children and the choice of intervention by
social-control agencies.
Charismatic Leadership
There is little doubt that leaders play an
important role in the formation and development
of groups in general, and of cultic and new
religion-type groups in particular (Weber, 1906).
However, it would be beyond the scope of this
article to review this literature as a whole.
Rather, in keeping with the aim of this piece, we
present a brief review of key theoretical
1 In French, Office des services de garde à l’enfance.
2 Pastor X is a pseudonym.
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 83
